Middle Kids – Edge Of Town

May
05
posted by tommy

The many individual constituents in this song that are of such extreme merit that it’s hard for me to know where to begin. Do I praise the vocal or elevate the production? Could it be the songwriting that marks this song a determinate monument? Perhaps it’s that each of the three members Middle Kids is a prolific musician in their own right, surely a song steeped in triune musicianship is superior to that of the lone singer-songwriter. We’ve all seen those memes (such as this one) suggesting that a greater number of songwriters guarantee a better song but is it always true? The answer is yes. It absolutely is. To that, it makes sense that Tim Fitz (famous from acts such as March Of The Real Fly and @TimFitzMusic and venerated for inventing the loop pedal), Hannah Joy (famous from acts such as Hannah Joy) and Harry Day (the one I don’t know much about but is surely wonderful if cosigned by the other two) would combine to make something greater than each of their individual powers would allow, in much the same way that five very talented robotic-lion pilots came together to make Voltron. Think on it.

Edge Of Town is the first thing they’ve released under this moniker and it immediately marks itself as something different from the current momentary musical flavours. Hannah’s vocals are as expansive and elastic as Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries so it should come as no surprise that the first has historically looked to the second for creative inspiration. There’s a bridge[like] section toward the end of the song that pans out not into another chorus but into such ballistic vocals from Hannah that they’ve been dialed back in the mix lest they overwhelm the rest of the song and I’m more than a little excited to see how they’re punched out live. It’s a song that speaks of uncertainty and confusion in its lyrics but is entirely assured in its sonic elements. Just as Hannah sings ‘standing face to face with the king of the underground’, I think we now find ourselves in a similar position with Middle Kids. All hail.




Have your say:

3 Comments
  1. 06/05/2016

    Controlling Voltron must be a lot like high-stakes QWOP.

  2. 06/05/2016

    Oh, and nice song, too.

  3. Mary Kennedy
    21/12/2017

    Song is so about crack cocaine addiction- one has to go to journey to the edge of Chicago namely Maywood, to get it and then I could go all day and stare at the tree people that only appear after days of no sleep and sucking that pipe. When one is in this state and believes in God, the demons (king of the underground) will appear and my sold to the devil soul will feel sorry for them. Replace “hey guys”
    with “hey God”…
    Lyrics:
    got all muddled up and journeyed to the edge of town
    And then the road cracked open
    Sucked me in, then I went down
    Now standing face to face
    With the king of the underground
    Some things just don’t add up
    I’m upside down
    I’m inside out.